Hey, so this is what November sounded like for me. Some new and some old, just the way I like it. Everything feels like it's sliding into winter; sometimes we get gorgeous bright sunny days and sometimes it's grey and damp but always the light is the light of late fall.
Chris Thile - Heart in a Cage (The Strokes)
It's funny because he took some flak in the bluegrass world for saying "fuck" in a song. But I effin' love this cover. Noam Pikelny on the banjo gets it good. And of course I like anything Chris Thile does. What UP, Tensions Mountain Boys?! (the tension's mounting, boys - get it?)
Fionn Regan - Black Water Child
Hello attractive Irish singer-songwriter! You can play your folksy guitar melodies for me anytime. Sidenote: the river that runs through my hometown is a blackwater river. In the South it means a river dyed dark brown - black - from leaf tannins. Slow-flowing sweet tea, if you will.
Joanna Newsom - Sawdust and Diamonds
So Ys really is awesome. But I like her vocals, so I guess I was easy to convince.
Patty Griffin - Useless Desires
Patty Griffin, why didn't I buy your album sooner? I've had like 5 Patty Griffin songs for years and loved 'em and finally finally I got Impossible Dream and I'm glad I did.
Califone - Our Kitten Sees Ghosts
This is really more October, but I didn't make an October mix. I left my tube of posters at home when I left; my Califone print I bought at the show in October is the only poster in my entire apartment. That and some dead branches and pieces of a broken mirror (not kidding).
Gillian Welch - Pocahontas (Neil Young, live)
It was a coin toss between this one and her cover of Black Star. This one won because I think I still prefer the Radiohead original to the cover. Neil Young, though... yeah.
Peter & the Wolf - The Highway
It's the narrative nature of Peter & the Wolf songs that gets me - these aren't lyrics, this is a short story strung on gentle chords.
The Ghosts - Penny Falls
I heard this one described as plaintive on some blog (forgot which). I don't think it's plaintive, I think it's precious and delicate and earnest. And it works - precious is hard to pull off.
Tobias Froberg - When the Night Turns Cold
The BONGO!
Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want
It's Torq from Stars! It sounds just like Stars!
Bonnie Prince Billy - New Partner (Daytrotter session)
I never knew that this was a BPB song. I think it might have been recorded under Will Oldham, not BPB, not sure? I used to love the Frames' version and just learned that it was a cover. Also, topically appropriate? Chew on that fat for a while.
Langhorne Slim - Restless
"Someday darlin' its got to make sense in your head / Can't make up your mind till you wake up and make your bed ..."
I've never seen what Langhorne Slim looks like and I never want to. I imagine him as reedy and thin as his voice, a little greasy around the temples. A good handshake and eyes that get you every time. This is from his new EP.
Big Star - What's Going Ahn
Retro! I need some more Big Star in my life, really.
Steve Earle - Halo 'Round the Moon (KGSR, live)
It's just so warm and comforting and wise.
Ferraby Lionheart - A Crack in Time
Oh y'all. The melody! The melody!
Tom Brosseau - Dark Garage
Some fine harmonica and a sublimely melancholy mood.
Nad Navillus - So You Can Sleep Easier
I never knew how much I liked this one until now.
Chris Thile - I'm Nowhere and You're Everything
Shush. Listen to that banjo. And that falsetto sigh just about halfway in. Almost makes you self-conscious to be listening, eh?
James Yorkston - I Know My Love
This is a trad tune and I've known it since I was little. Yorkston wins for making it totally his own by slowing it way, way down and adding the intimacy that is missing from its more typically jaunty incarnations.
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OK, so I really really wanted to put the Eddie Vedder and Janet Weiss Tonight You Belong to Me cover on here, but I don't have the mp3, just the YouTube video and an mp3 of the famous duet with Steve Martin and that other lady... but that one just didn't work like the E and J one did for me. So you can just pretend that it's on here.
And, while not on the mix, I got some pure straight hippie bliss this month too: live sets from Mutual Admiration Society, some rare Nickel Creek covers, a couple Dixie Chicks tracks, homemade mp3s of live Thile streams from BBC and Reg's, and two full sets from this time when Gillian Welch, Ani Difranco, and Greg Brown toured together. Yeah.
You can download November if you like. (it's up for real now! just took a while!)